Day 2 & 3 - Christopher Wren Gin and Strane Merchant Strength Gin

My one issue with keeping up with my Ginvent calendar is that I keep it in the office - and I'm not always there to open it! Therefore, today I was tasting 2 gins from 2 days (and I will have to do the same for a couple next week as I'm away!)

Day 2 was Christopher Wren Gin from the City of London Distillery. This retails at £42 for 70cl (equivalent to £60/L). It's one of 5 gins made by the distillery - which also produces a Sloe Gin. This is the description according to the website:

Christopher Wren Gin has been designed by expert Master Distiller Tom Nichol. This premium gin combines the subtle flavours of juniper, coriander, angelica root, liquorice and sweet orange to give a complex gin that balances quality and flavour

This is another gin I should probably have paired with orange peel in hinesight - but today's choice was lime as my personal favourite! It was pretty tasty, quite a smooth gin - but also quite subtle. Perfectly pleasant - and also tasted quite nice when sipping the last neat drops from the bottle (purely for comparison reasons of course).

Interestingly, both of today's gins were London Dry Gin (which refers to the particular production methods - see Wikipedia for more detail). However, only one of them was made in London - the second gin is actually made in Sweden at the Strane distillery in Smögen.

I have to say that the Strane gin was pretty special - only a little stronger than the Christopher Wren gin, but with a much more punchy flavour. If like me your Swedish is completely non-existent, you can read the tasting notes on the Whisky Exchange website - or have a look at the Strane distillery  website and run it through translation. See below:

The spices are 12 in number and include juniper berries, coriander seeds, almonds, basil, mint, sage, lemon and lime zest, cinnamon stick and liquorice, as well as two secret ingredients that puts the famous icing on the cake ...

I'd love to know what their 'secret ingredients' are - but this has definitely been my favourite gin of the three I've tasted so far (and I think the feeling is mutual with the other tasters who've shared a wee dram). Unsurprisingly for an imported gin, it's not cheap - retailing in the UK for £39.45 for 50cl (£78.90/L) - however, in this case I would consider getting a bottle for the house for special occasions. Very tasty

I have already rescued tomorrow's gin from the office as I won't be in tomorrow either - and am looking forward to trying some Strathearn Heather Rose Gin!